PEN­TAVA­LENT VAC­CINES IN CITY HOS­PI­TALS

CBD BE­LA­PUR: Chil­dren in the city will fi­nally get five vac­cines con­ju­gated in one as the Navi Mum­bai Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion (NMMC) has launched the ‘five in one’ pen­tava­lent vac­cine in the city un­der the Cen­tre’s univer­sal im­mu­ni­sa­tion pro­gramme.

The pro­gramme has been launched by the gov­ern­ment in only a few states as of now.

DPT, a com­bi­na­tion of vac­cines against three in­fec­tious diseases in hu­mans — diph­the­ria, per­tus­sis and tetanus— is al­ready a part of the pro­gramme in the coun­try.

HIB vac­cine has now been added to it.

The vac­cine was launched by mayor Sud­hakar Son­awane ear­lier this week.

Ac­cord­ing to NMMC med­i­cal of­fi­cer Dr Deepak Parop­kari, “The vac­ci­na­tion will be given free of cost to upto one-year-old in­fants. It will pro­tect them from any in­fec­tion to the ner­vous sys­tem.”

He added, “Par­ents should en­sure that their chil­dren take the vac­ci­na­tion as it will pro­tect them from five se­ri­ous ail­ments. It is now avail­able at all 21 ur­ban health cen­tres of the city and NMMC hos­pi­tals at Vashi, Airoli apart from camps that NMMC will set up.”